Shot 5 Times: A Police Officer's Survival Story

Dennis Collins: 00:00:10

Hey, we're glad to see you again.

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A warm welcome back to heroes Behind The Badge.

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We tell real stories about real cops and we expose the fake news about police.

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And we give you the real truth.

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This podcast is brought to you by Citizens Behind The Badge, the leading

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voice of the American people in support of the men and women of law enforcement.

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Citizensbehindthebadge.

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org.

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I'm your host, Dennis Collins.

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Let me introduce my colleagues, Bill Urfurth.

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is a founding board member of Citizens Behind The Badge.

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He's a retired Miami Dade police lieutenant with 26 years of decorated service.

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And alongside Bill today, let me introduce the founder, the

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president, and the CEO of Citizens Behind The Badge, Craig Floyd.

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Many of you may know Craig as the founding CEO emeritus of the National

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Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in  Washington D.C. Welcome, Bill.

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Welcome, Craig.

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Today, gentlemen, we have a distinct honor.

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We are welcoming to our podcast, James Cusack, a law enforcement veteran whose story of sacrifice

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and survival embodies the true meaning of heroism, behind the badge.

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Jimmy served with distinction in Washington County, PA, where he spent nine years as a narcotics detective.

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Before he joined the city of Clairton police department as a certified defensive tactics

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instructor, he brought valuable expertise to his fellow officers.

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He currently serves as a Glock brand ambassador, a team

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Glock adaptive shooter, and a certified firearms instructor.

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If you haven't heard Jimmy's story, please stay tuned.

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It's an extraordinary story of courage.

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It was featured in the documentary film Heroes Behind The Badge, Sacrifice and Survival.

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Today, he continues to serve the law enforcement community, and we're proud to have Jimmy as a member

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of the Citizens Behind The Badge law enforcement advisory board.

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We are honored.

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We are privileged to have Jimmy here today to share in his

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own words, his powerful story of resilience and dedication.

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His journey is an inspiration and a testament to the spirit of the men and women who protect

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and serve our communities every day in law enforcement.

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Jimmy, you've been a great friend.

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You've set an outstanding example of what heroism is all about.

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We're honored to have you here with us today to share your story.

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Welcome.

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Good to see you.

Jim Kuzak: 00:03:05

Thanks, Dennis.

Jim Kuzak: 00:03:05

It's good to see you as well and to sit here and speak with all of you.

Jim Kuzak: 00:03:09

It's always a welcoming and heartfelt conversation with you guys.

Dennis Collins: 00:03:14

Well, we've always enjoyed being with you and your wife, Cris, and today, uh, for those who

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haven't heard your amazing story, we get a chance once again to never forget, to never forget your heroic actions,

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your courage, and your dedication to the law enforcement community.

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So I'd like to ask our leader, our fearless leader, Craig.

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To start us off today, he, he and Billy have some, some questions for you.

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I may chime in if they get off course, you know, sometimes they, they get a little, so I've got to

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step in and no, no, I'm not those guys, but I'm sure they'll do a

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great job of, of, of, of letting you have a chance to tell your story.

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Craig.

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Sure.

Craig Floyd: 00:03:59

Okay.

Craig Floyd: 00:04:00

You, you are truly one of those heroes Behind The Badge and we love to showcase people like yourself on

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this as a podcast, but you know, I'm going to take you back to May 13, 2013.

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That's when you and I first met.

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Uh, you were our July 2012 officer of the month at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

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Uh, we were having our conference annual officer of the month

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tribute luncheon uh, you were one of our 12 honorees that day.

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And, uh, I'll never forget the first time we met, uh, you were looking really good in your dress uniform.

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I seem to recall your parents were there with you.

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But really what stood out for me that day in our first meeting was this beautiful blonde on your side.

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She was really striking, I must say.

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Um, and I remember it like it was yesterday.

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Um, and, and here we are 12 years later.

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Uh, still good friends, still staying in touch, still working together.

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Uh, you were one of the first people I reached out to, uh, when I wanted to form a law enforcement advisory council.

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I wanted to pick some officers that I had the highest respect for.

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And, uh, you were certainly one of those officers.

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Um, you have quite a story to tell and.

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You know, I was looking back at our officer of the month tribute and, uh, the write up we did for you, it still

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appears on the national law enforcement officers, memorial funds website.

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Uh, anyone can go there and see it along with all the other officers of the month we've honored over the years.

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But it said, uh, patrolman Kuzak believes that if anything good resulted from his encounter with the two gunmen.

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It was an opportunity to shine a light on the law enforcement profession and

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raise awareness of the courage and bravery of the men and women who serve.

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And Jimmy, I couldn't agree more.

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Uh, that is what you have been a inspiration to so many with your story.

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And I'd like you to take us back to April 4th, 2011, to the incident that changed your life forever

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and put an end to your 18 years of distinguished law enforcement service.

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Tell us what happened that day.

Jim Kuzak: 00:06:23

It's been a little while since I've thought about it.

Jim Kuzak: 00:06:25

You know, this far removed from it, you kind of, uh, set yourself apart from it and you move on.

Jim Kuzak: 00:06:31

But going back to it, you know, once you start thinking about it, it's all right there.

Jim Kuzak: 00:06:36

And on April 4th, I went to work.

Jim Kuzak: 00:06:39

It was probably, I think I started my shift at 8 p. m. that night, or no, excuse me, it was at 4 p. m., and I

Jim Kuzak: 00:06:46

was going to be working through the evening with my two partners, Matt McDaniel at the time and John Steiner.

Jim Kuzak: 00:06:52

So just a normal day to start off.

Jim Kuzak: 00:06:54

You go in, you review your reports, you see what the guys were up to, what calls

Jim Kuzak: 00:06:58

we've had, and then you go out and get in the car and you start your patrol.

Jim Kuzak: 00:07:02

And We had a few calls that evening, nothing major.

Jim Kuzak: 00:07:06

I think we believe we had a domestic and as the night went on, it started to rain, you know, Western Pennsylvania

Jim Kuzak: 00:07:12

and April's a very rainy month, usually pretty cold, but it wasn't too bad.

Jim Kuzak: 00:07:17

I remember at least preparing for work that night, wearing a long sleeve shirt and, uh, we got on the road.

Jim Kuzak: 00:07:24

So it was about, uh, I believe we got the call.

Jim Kuzak: 00:07:27

It was around 1047 or 1045 that evening.

Jim Kuzak: 00:07:33

We received a call to go to, um, Miller Avenue for what was considered a disturbance.

Jim Kuzak: 00:07:40

Uh, that disturbance was called in by the neighbor being of one of two places of the duplex on Miller

Jim Kuzak: 00:07:48

Avenue called to say, there's something going on next door.

Jim Kuzak: 00:07:52

We don't know what we can hear the yelling.

Jim Kuzak: 00:07:53

If we can hear the noises going on.

Jim Kuzak: 00:07:56

So that's all we had to go on right away.

Jim Kuzak: 00:07:58

So as we responded, uh, we got more information that it could be either a

Jim Kuzak: 00:08:03

domestic or I believe it was stated, it might be a possible home invasion.

Jim Kuzak: 00:08:08

So I arrived first, parked about two, three houses from the scene and come up my lights out so nobody could see me.

Jim Kuzak: 00:08:15

And then Matt arrived as well.

Jim Kuzak: 00:08:17

We stepped out of our patrol units.

Jim Kuzak: 00:08:19

Matt grabbed his, uh, long rifle and AR 15 and I went out just,

Jim Kuzak: 00:08:24

you know, with My handgun and John arrived as well and we both.

Jim Kuzak: 00:08:30

Uh, John, what we had already come to see, which was we could see some shadows

Jim Kuzak: 00:08:36

moving in front of the window in the upstairs, uh, of the, of the house.

Jim Kuzak: 00:08:41

So we said, let's approach, we'll go up to the front of the house.

Jim Kuzak: 00:08:44

I'll go to the rear of the house.

Jim Kuzak: 00:08:46

And Matt was going to kind of just look over both of us.

Jim Kuzak: 00:08:49

So as I walked along the side of the house, listening, I could hear sound like footsteps.

Jim Kuzak: 00:08:54

Some rushing moving around.

Jim Kuzak: 00:08:55

I went to was, uh, the rear of the home was a deck and what I say as a deck is it was very small.

Jim Kuzak: 00:09:01

It was maybe four to five feet wide and maybe about four to six feet deep.

Jim Kuzak: 00:09:07

Four steps to get up to where the door was.

Jim Kuzak: 00:09:10

So I walked up the steps.

Jim Kuzak: 00:09:12

Same time I was prepared for what we had going on.

Jim Kuzak: 00:09:15

I had my handgun out.

Jim Kuzak: 00:09:16

I was just addressing what I needed to, which is my safety and let's see,

Jim Kuzak: 00:09:21

could we gain any type of response from the people inside the home?

Jim Kuzak: 00:09:25

Well, as soon as I walked up the steps, I noticed that the rear door,

Jim Kuzak: 00:09:28

a large white steel door, was cracked open about a quarter to half an inch.

Jim Kuzak: 00:09:33

So I like, as I quietly as best I could, I approached the door and abruptly the door shut.

Jim Kuzak: 00:09:40

So at that point in time, I announced myself, Clareton Police, opened the door, repeated attempts, no

Jim Kuzak: 00:09:45

one did, so I immediately backed away and tried to kick the door.

Jim Kuzak: 00:09:50

That being a steel door, it didn't want to go.

Jim Kuzak: 00:09:52

So I backed away, came down the steps, got the attention of Matt and John.

Jim Kuzak: 00:09:57

And we amassed on the side of the house again, watching the front and back.

Jim Kuzak: 00:10:00

And John told me, he says, Hey, I made contact at the front door.

Jim Kuzak: 00:10:05

The door was opened only a crack and a male just stated it.

Jim Kuzak: 00:10:08

Everything's fine here.

Jim Kuzak: 00:10:09

Just leave us be.

Jim Kuzak: 00:10:09

And he slammed the door in John's face.

Jim Kuzak: 00:10:11

John says, I didn't feel right.

Jim Kuzak: 00:10:14

I didn't get to see the guy.

Jim Kuzak: 00:10:15

So we know something's going on.

Jim Kuzak: 00:10:17

I said, okay.

Jim Kuzak: 00:10:19

I said, since something's going on in the front and back, that's the

Jim Kuzak: 00:10:22

only two ways they had to exit the house short of jumping out a window.

Jim Kuzak: 00:10:26

So we went towards the back of the house.

Jim Kuzak: 00:10:29

And again, I approached the steps, John was behind me, but at the time I didn't know how closely John was

Jim Kuzak: 00:10:36

to me, and I knew Matt was a little bit back, kind of giving us cover.

Jim Kuzak: 00:10:42

Now again, it was pitch black dark at night in, in April, uh, it had begun to drizzle and rain a little bit.

Jim Kuzak: 00:10:49

And it just kind of sets the, the feeling of something's not right.

Jim Kuzak: 00:10:54

So we knew something was serious in the house and we would shortly find out.

Jim Kuzak: 00:11:01

Once I reached the top of the deck, I walked towards the door, but I wanted to step to the side a little bit.

Jim Kuzak: 00:11:06

And just as I did that, the door opened abruptly and all I saw was a black doorway.

Jim Kuzak: 00:11:15

And then the next thing I saw was an orange muzzle flash.

Jim Kuzak: 00:11:19

That was a shock.

Jim Kuzak: 00:11:20

I didn't expect any of that to come.

Jim Kuzak: 00:11:22

I expected that I was going to read resistance at the door, but nothing to that degree.

Jim Kuzak: 00:11:27

With a little bit of my experience, having been involved with the defensive tactics and firearms, um, I had the

Jim Kuzak: 00:11:33

knowledge of, you know, the flight or fight syndrome of where your body just reacts to a given stimulus.

Jim Kuzak: 00:11:41

Well, that stimulus was.

Jim Kuzak: 00:11:43

What I believe to be gunfire and the muzzle flash of a weapon.

Jim Kuzak: 00:11:46

Immediately I had auditory exclusion.

Jim Kuzak: 00:11:49

I couldn't really hear anything.

Jim Kuzak: 00:11:50

And what little sight I had with the being that dark was the muzzle flash.

Jim Kuzak: 00:11:59

Immediately upon that first shot, I didn't know that I had been

Jim Kuzak: 00:12:05

struck and where I had been struck was as I was bladed at the door.

Jim Kuzak: 00:12:09

The first round struck my right forearm, midway, and then traveled to my elbow and lodged at my elbow.

Jim Kuzak: 00:12:16

Uh, that immediately took my gun away from me.

Jim Kuzak: 00:12:19

I didn't know this.

Jim Kuzak: 00:12:20

It was later found about 15 feet away from me.

Jim Kuzak: 00:12:24

But as I was standing there, and again, in my time, time has slowed down.

Jim Kuzak: 00:12:29

It's, the second seemed like minutes to me.

Jim Kuzak: 00:12:34

The second shot had gone.

Jim Kuzak: 00:12:35

Third shot had gone.

Jim Kuzak: 00:12:37

At this time, I didn't know if they had struck me or not.

Jim Kuzak: 00:12:41

The fourth shot would be the most devastating to me at that point in time.

Jim Kuzak: 00:12:45

It had struck my left chest area right near my armpit where it had gone through the corner of the vest, traveled

Jim Kuzak: 00:12:55

through the vest into my chest, struck a rib, and then that bullet traveled down through my body and across my T11

Jim Kuzak: 00:13:03

vertebrae where it immediately rendered me paralyzed from the waist down.

Jim Kuzak: 00:13:07

So I went from standing to an immediate drop.

Jim Kuzak: 00:13:10

And during that drop, a fifth round struck me in my left armpit.

Jim Kuzak: 00:13:15

And when my body hit the floor of the deck, my head struck back on the banister kind of sent me for a

Jim Kuzak: 00:13:21

little more of a loop and I busted one of the spindles out of the deck.

Jim Kuzak: 00:13:26

So at this time, I really don't know who had shot me.

Jim Kuzak: 00:13:30

I just knew that I, I had been injured and injured gravely.

Jim Kuzak: 00:13:34

Sitting there on the deck and again Tom standing still for me.

Jim Kuzak: 00:13:40

I know that I'm addressing what's going on I know that I'm still awake.

Jim Kuzak: 00:13:44

I'm still alive.

Jim Kuzak: 00:13:45

I'm still breathing The breathing is getting difficult.

Jim Kuzak: 00:13:50

Very difficult as each breath I take I just can't get that breath in But then as I am sitting there I could see a

Jim Kuzak: 00:14:00

pair of legs walking out towards me and I thought this has got to be the end This person is not going to let me live.

Jim Kuzak: 00:14:09

I don't know who it is, but I know it's somebody in there that has just tried to harm me or tried to kill me.

Jim Kuzak: 00:14:16

So I guess I kind of think of it as I kind of turned my head expecting that last round.

Jim Kuzak: 00:14:22

And it never happened.

Jim Kuzak: 00:14:23

That person continued on over me and I didn't see where they went.

Jim Kuzak: 00:14:28

So now my

Jim Kuzak: 00:14:32

response to all this is, okay, you, you've got to get out of here.

Jim Kuzak: 00:14:36

I don't know where my firearm is.

Jim Kuzak: 00:14:37

Now, the next thing is I got to try and contact somebody or contact my partners.

Jim Kuzak: 00:14:41

I reach for my microphone on my chest.

Jim Kuzak: 00:14:44

It's not there.

Jim Kuzak: 00:14:45

So my radio is not functional.

Jim Kuzak: 00:14:47

Now I reaching around from my farm.

Jim Kuzak: 00:14:50

I can't find it either.

Jim Kuzak: 00:14:52

I know that I can feel warmth on the left side of my chest.

Jim Kuzak: 00:14:56

I know that's where I've been struck, but I can feel

Jim Kuzak: 00:15:00

if you've just would to spill a drink on yourself and it keeps

Jim Kuzak: 00:15:03

pouring on you, I can just feel that coming out of my left chest.

Jim Kuzak: 00:15:06

And I know that This isn't good.

Jim Kuzak: 00:15:09

You really need to do something about this.

Jim Kuzak: 00:15:12

And then my mind shifted past All of the training that I'd done of how you need to respond in a shooting

Jim Kuzak: 00:15:19

situation or what you need to do, and it went towards, um, the important things in life, what appeared to

Jim Kuzak: 00:15:28

me, what appeared to me was, um, I don't know, it was a favorite, but

Jim Kuzak: 00:15:33

my grandmother, the past was in my memory or in my right in my mind.

Jim Kuzak: 00:15:39

Uh, who I was very close to.

Jim Kuzak: 00:15:42

Then the next thing it kind of comes into is your family.

Jim Kuzak: 00:15:44

My mother, my father, and Cris, they're just right there in my mind.

Jim Kuzak: 00:15:50

And what, what does this mean?

Jim Kuzak: 00:15:52

Is this, what's going to be the, the last of what I do?

Jim Kuzak: 00:15:57

And then it was our dogs.

Jim Kuzak: 00:16:00

We had the time, we had two German shepherds, one Zarwin, large, big.

Jim Kuzak: 00:16:04

Brown and black Shepherd.

Jim Kuzak: 00:16:06

And we had Xena was a smaller Shepherd.

Jim Kuzak: 00:16:09

She was Cris's working dog at the time in search and rescue.

Jim Kuzak: 00:16:12

And I could see them sitting on my chest, panting, looking at me like, yeah, it's hard to breathe.

Jim Kuzak: 00:16:17

So what?

Jim Kuzak: 00:16:20

And once I got that in my mind and we'll.

Jim Kuzak: 00:16:22

Was important.

Jim Kuzak: 00:16:24

I knew that something clicked and said I'm not dying here on this porch nothing's gonna let me die

Jim Kuzak: 00:16:31

on this porch and Garnered up the strength that I could and I

Jim Kuzak: 00:16:36

breathed in as much as I could and I started yelling I'm hit Matt John.

Jim Kuzak: 00:16:42

I'm down, but I didn't hear anything.

Jim Kuzak: 00:16:45

I didn't hear anybody coming I didn't know what was going on.

Jim Kuzak: 00:16:49

What I didn't know was how close John was to me And I only found this out later on in the trial.

Jim Kuzak: 00:16:56

Uh, John had been basically at the base of the steps in the line of fire and he wasn't struck, but then as soon

Jim Kuzak: 00:17:05

as the fire firing started, he took cover right to the corner of the deck and Matt was back far enough that he

Jim Kuzak: 00:17:11

was to the side of the house, didn't see so much of who was shooting.

Jim Kuzak: 00:17:16

They both thought I was the one doing the shooting.

Jim Kuzak: 00:17:19

Obviously it wasn't the case.

Jim Kuzak: 00:17:21

So now that Matt and John saw a person run through the yard, they began to give chase and ran about the 10 yards

Jim Kuzak: 00:17:30

to the alleyway and got to the alleyway, maybe a little bit deeper than 10.

Jim Kuzak: 00:17:35

They started to run and then Matt said he heard something, which must've been me.

Jim Kuzak: 00:17:41

And he spins around with his AR and has a flashlight on it and comes up to me on the porch.

Jim Kuzak: 00:17:47

Now at the time we were all wearing black BDUs, um, a little subdued with the colors, and we had on

Jim Kuzak: 00:17:53

silver patches that were subdued, kind of lettering on them as well.

Jim Kuzak: 00:17:58

And he come up and he saw the body and he's like, okay, there's one of them.

Jim Kuzak: 00:18:01

And then he looked and he said, that's Jimmy.

Jim Kuzak: 00:18:04

He yelled for John and they came back.

Jim Kuzak: 00:18:07

And at that point, that's when they knew that, Hey, I hadn't been the one doing the shooting.

Jim Kuzak: 00:18:12

Matt had been a lifelong EMT as well, worked on an ambulance.

Jim Kuzak: 00:18:16

So to my luck, that's what he did as well as a police officer.

Jim Kuzak: 00:18:21

Matt immediately slung his rifle to the rear, told me he's going to have to pull me off the deck.

Jim Kuzak: 00:18:27

Matt pulled me off, threw me up over his shoulder.

Jim Kuzak: 00:18:29

Now Matt's.

Jim Kuzak: 00:18:32

Five, nine, you know, just over 200 pounds, you know, I'm probably over 205 with our gear on.

Jim Kuzak: 00:18:40

And he humped me up over his shoulder.

Jim Kuzak: 00:18:43

My head was over his back and he started running me out to the front of the house with jaw and giving cover.

Jim Kuzak: 00:18:52

Went about a house down to the sidewalk and that's where They were gonna try and take care of me in the biggest thing.

Jim Kuzak: 00:18:59

I remembered out of Matt Carrying me was why is my head bouncing off of his butt and it to me?

Jim Kuzak: 00:19:08

It's funny it's funny now that I think about it because Okay, you're probably

Jim Kuzak: 00:19:14

in the process of actively dying, and this is what comes to your brain.

Jim Kuzak: 00:19:20

So, when we get out to the sidewalk, Matt says he placed me on the ground.

Jim Kuzak: 00:19:26

I say he dropped me, um, because it felt like my head hit again, so that would have been number two.

Jim Kuzak: 00:19:32

But then Matt says, Jimmy, I gotta find out what's going on.

Jim Kuzak: 00:19:34

I said, okay.

Jim Kuzak: 00:19:36

And it's blurry what I see.

Jim Kuzak: 00:19:38

I don't really see everything.

Jim Kuzak: 00:19:39

I don't know if that was just from me hitting my head or just the entire situation of what was going on.

Jim Kuzak: 00:19:45

Matt ripped my shirt open, took my vest off, moved me, and he said, Jimmy, this is gonna hurt.

Jim Kuzak: 00:19:49

Now at this point in time, I haven't felt pain.

Jim Kuzak: 00:19:53

I didn't know what was going on other than I knew I was, I was wounded bad.

Jim Kuzak: 00:19:58

And let's say I was hoping for the best.

Jim Kuzak: 00:20:03

Matt reaches up and grabs at the site where the bullet went in on my left side.

Jim Kuzak: 00:20:07

And that was the first time I felt pain and boy, did I scream out in pain and.

Jim Kuzak: 00:20:13

I remember feeling the rain on my face, him working on me, John speaking to me.

Jim Kuzak: 00:20:19

And then I heard another voice.

Jim Kuzak: 00:20:20

It sounded familiar.

Jim Kuzak: 00:20:21

Well, at this point in time, I didn't realize they did know.

Jim Kuzak: 00:20:25

And the guys were giving out every command they could.

Jim Kuzak: 00:20:28

And in Allegheny County at the time.

Jim Kuzak: 00:20:32

You're dealing with, uh, a large County that had 127 different police

Jim Kuzak: 00:20:37

departments, three major city police departments and a sheriff's department.

Jim Kuzak: 00:20:42

So when we need assistance in small departments, they dispatch will call out an all call, which is any and

Jim Kuzak: 00:20:49

all available cars respond to our location in the city of Clarendon.

Jim Kuzak: 00:20:55

So as that was already happening, I started hearing sirens.

Jim Kuzak: 00:20:58

Uh, another officer from another department had arrived and.

Jim Kuzak: 00:21:01

I remember hearing his voice and he says, Jimmy, it's Timmy.

Jim Kuzak: 00:21:05

I said, I know Tim, I can hear your voice, but I couldn't do much else.

Jim Kuzak: 00:21:10

I remember the ambulance arriving.

Jim Kuzak: 00:21:13

I can hear them coming up.

Jim Kuzak: 00:21:14

I hear the common sound of the stretcher being pulled in and now they're starting to work on me.

Jim Kuzak: 00:21:20

And they immediately lift me up, toss me on the, uh, the cot and start moving me towards the ambulance.

Jim Kuzak: 00:21:27

I hear all these voices and I'm just trying to stay alive.

Jim Kuzak: 00:21:30

I'm just trying to breathe.

Jim Kuzak: 00:21:32

They try and get me in the ambulance.

Jim Kuzak: 00:21:33

And I remember hearing them say.

Jim Kuzak: 00:21:35

Get the damn caught in the ambulance already.

Jim Kuzak: 00:21:38

Well, for some reason, you're hurrying.

Jim Kuzak: 00:21:40

It just kept smacking off the back of the ambulance.

Jim Kuzak: 00:21:42

They couldn't get it in.

Jim Kuzak: 00:21:44

They get me inside the ambulance and, and it starts.

Jim Kuzak: 00:21:47

Uh, I was fortunate enough to have, uh, a longstanding paramedic on the, on the ambulance, a longstanding

Jim Kuzak: 00:21:56

other EMT paramedic on the ambulance, and a young girl that.

Jim Kuzak: 00:22:01

Who was just starting her EMT career.

Jim Kuzak: 00:22:04

So I later find out it was quite the shock to her.

Jim Kuzak: 00:22:08

And unfortunately she, she quit EMT and stuff shortly thereafter.

Jim Kuzak: 00:22:12

And I can understand why it's seeing somebody, let alone an officer shot is, is very difficult.

Jim Kuzak: 00:22:21

So once in the ambulance, uh, the doors close and.

Jim Kuzak: 00:22:24

We get on our way and I could hear that, you know, they were, were intending

Jim Kuzak: 00:22:28

on having me go by life flight or at the time we had stat medevac as well.

Jim Kuzak: 00:22:33

Well, within the city of Clareton, we still have a functioning steel mill.

Jim Kuzak: 00:22:37

So at that point they have a helipad and that's where we were not but two, three minutes away from.

Jim Kuzak: 00:22:45

But the rain had gotten so bad that, uh, stat medevac said, we can't fly.

Jim Kuzak: 00:22:51

Okay.

Jim Kuzak: 00:22:52

That's kind of a bummer.

Jim Kuzak: 00:22:53

Let's see what else we can do.

Jim Kuzak: 00:22:54

So they take off in the ambulance, not wasting time.

Jim Kuzak: 00:22:58

Well, Doug driving the ambulance got ahead of the police car.

Jim Kuzak: 00:23:01

So he's the lead vehicle now, as we went down to eight 37.

Jim Kuzak: 00:23:05

Uh, commonly referred to as, uh, it's State Street to us, but it's

Jim Kuzak: 00:23:10

a major, major thoroughfare for everybody traveling along the river.

Jim Kuzak: 00:23:14

A car pulled out in front of the ambulance and he had to avoid that.

Jim Kuzak: 00:23:17

And I remember when he did that part of my, my one leg fell off the cot.

Jim Kuzak: 00:23:22

They had already had an IV that had been ripped out because the paramedics and the EMT couldn't see as well

Jim Kuzak: 00:23:27

as I. So trying to right yourself in an ambulance where you can't see is, is a difficult prospect.

Jim Kuzak: 00:23:35

So I remember.

Jim Kuzak: 00:23:36

I don't know who any of them said, well, can you pick your leg back up?

Jim Kuzak: 00:23:39

And I says, nah, I already told you I'm paralyzed.

Jim Kuzak: 00:23:42

So I knew it.

Jim Kuzak: 00:23:43

I don't know how or when I quickly knew it, but, but I did.

Jim Kuzak: 00:23:48

Uh, it's,

Craig Floyd: 00:23:50

it's a very real with it, Jimmy.

Craig Floyd: 00:23:52

Yeah.

Craig Floyd: 00:23:52

And you realize you're paralyzed for the first time, maybe.

Craig Floyd: 00:23:56

Uh, how did that hit you?

Jim Kuzak: 00:23:59

You know, Craig, when it was going through the process, I don't want to say a process, but through the

Jim Kuzak: 00:24:04

incident, it didn't register like that that was an issue at the point in time.

Jim Kuzak: 00:24:09

I just knew that my legs weren't working and a feeling that you've never felt before.

Jim Kuzak: 00:24:15

Uh, they just, I heard this described by another, uh, person, my dear

Jim Kuzak: 00:24:20

friend, or what you want to call paraplegics or quadriplegics.

Jim Kuzak: 00:24:23

We, they say, put your hand on the desk or on a countertop.

Jim Kuzak: 00:24:28

And try and only move your ring finger off of that countertop.

Jim Kuzak: 00:24:34

Most people can't do it.

Jim Kuzak: 00:24:36

Your middle finger follows or anything, but just to move just that finger,

Jim Kuzak: 00:24:40

you sit there and you're telling it in your mind to move, but it doesn't.

Jim Kuzak: 00:24:43

Well, that's kind of how it is.

Jim Kuzak: 00:24:44

I'm trying to tell my legs to move.

Jim Kuzak: 00:24:46

I'm trying to say, let's get up and run, but it doesn't happen.

Jim Kuzak: 00:24:50

So that's kind of like your first, you know, thing right there that it's not working.

Jim Kuzak: 00:24:56

You don't know why, but let's move on.

Jim Kuzak: 00:24:59

And that's kind of how I dealt with it immediately.

Jim Kuzak: 00:25:02

But biggest, the bigger thing was, I really couldn't breathe.

Jim Kuzak: 00:25:05

What I didn't know was that that bullet pretty much destroyed most of my left lung.

Jim Kuzak: 00:25:10

So, and at the time, I was told that my right lung started to collapse as well.

Jim Kuzak: 00:25:16

So I remember in the ambulance him saying he's going to have to, um, poke through a needle into my chest

Jim Kuzak: 00:25:21

to relieve the, the pressure and the air and the buildup in there.

Jim Kuzak: 00:25:25

And he did.

Jim Kuzak: 00:25:26

It helped a little bit and then it started going south again.

Jim Kuzak: 00:25:29

So he did it on the right side as well.

Jim Kuzak: 00:25:31

And that, I guess, helped him breathe a little bit, but still to me, it was so difficult.

Jim Kuzak: 00:25:39

I don't, I even know it's, everybody has run, you know what it's like to kind of exhaust yourself and running or to

Jim Kuzak: 00:25:46

some point you're huffing and puffing and trying to get that breath in.

Jim Kuzak: 00:25:50

And that's kind of what's happening.

Jim Kuzak: 00:25:52

But there's no relief to it.

Jim Kuzak: 00:25:54

I can still feel the pressure of the blood coming out of my left side.

Jim Kuzak: 00:25:57

It's, you just feel it.

Jim Kuzak: 00:25:58

It's that warmth of, um, just itself coming down onto your body somewhere.

Jim Kuzak: 00:26:05

Well, fortunate enough, the city of Pittsburgh has three trauma level

Jim Kuzak: 00:26:08

hospitals, and we were only, you know, on the better end of 20 minutes from it.

Jim Kuzak: 00:26:14

Our ambulance trip, they told me, took about 17 minutes.

Jim Kuzak: 00:26:18

And I remember The whole hearing the backup beep on the ambulance

Jim Kuzak: 00:26:22

when we backed up and then they opened the doors to the ambulance.

Jim Kuzak: 00:26:25

Most of the lights shut off and the exterior lights turn on.

Jim Kuzak: 00:26:28

And I could feel being drug out on the cot and going into the hospital.

Jim Kuzak: 00:26:33

And the other thing, it's oddly how it strikes you as you go in a hospital, I'm looking straight up to

Jim Kuzak: 00:26:38

the ceiling and I just see the lights going by and it just reminded me of.

Jim Kuzak: 00:26:42

Seeing the sitcoms on TV of E. R. and stuff and how they drop back to showing you those lights.

Jim Kuzak: 00:26:50

And I'm like, okay, and then I started hearing all the voices.

Jim Kuzak: 00:26:55

Everybody running around trying to do things and I remember

Jim Kuzak: 00:26:57

talking to the doctor asking me, What hurts or what can you feel?

Jim Kuzak: 00:27:01

And I said, well, Nothing greatly hurts other than I can feel right on the right side of my ass.

Jim Kuzak: 00:27:06

It just is burning.

Jim Kuzak: 00:27:09

And he's like, okay.

Jim Kuzak: 00:27:11

And then I don't remember anything, but to me, what was the end?

Jim Kuzak: 00:27:15

And what it was is still having some level of consciousness and then going to solid white.

Jim Kuzak: 00:27:25

It wasn't black.

Jim Kuzak: 00:27:26

It wasn't anything.

Jim Kuzak: 00:27:28

I wasn't nervous.

Jim Kuzak: 00:27:29

I didn't know if it was me going out or them putting me out.

Jim Kuzak: 00:27:34

And uh, that was the end of the night for me.

Jim Kuzak: 00:27:38

It just kind of ended that way.

Craig Floyd: 00:27:40

Basically, as I recall you telling me before that it was those first 48 hours that were so

Craig Floyd: 00:27:46

critical to your survival, there was a lot of concern about whether

Craig Floyd: 00:27:50

or not you would actually live through this ordeal, and you did.

Craig Floyd: 00:27:54

And you look great today.

Craig Floyd: 00:27:56

Um, and you, and you've got a pretty good life, my friend, especially

Craig Floyd: 00:27:59

with that striking blonde, Cris, uh, still by your side, by the way.

Craig Floyd: 00:28:03

Um, Bill, I know you have some questions for Jimmy and, and maybe you can pick up the story in terms

Craig Floyd: 00:28:09

of what happened to these two thugs, uh, the criminal justice process that, uh, took place afterwards.

Craig Floyd: 00:28:16

Um, why don't you go ahead and take us there?

Craig Floyd: 00:28:18

You did a documentary telling Jimmy's story.

Craig Floyd: 00:28:21

You know it as well as anyone.

Bill Erfurth: 00:28:23

Yeah.

Bill Erfurth: 00:28:24

So Jimmy.

Bill Erfurth: 00:28:25

Let's, um, let's just kind of cut to the chase.

Bill Erfurth: 00:28:27

We, we, you know, we, we know clearly the hospital did a great job.

Bill Erfurth: 00:28:32

Uh, I know this, the stories and the trials and tribulations at the time you

Bill Erfurth: 00:28:36

spent in the hospital, but why don't we jump into telling what happened?

Bill Erfurth: 00:28:42

I mean, why, what was going on inside that house?

Bill Erfurth: 00:28:44

I think now that you've just explained that you got shot, all these

Bill Erfurth: 00:28:47

things, people are probably thinking what the hell was going on there.

Jim Kuzak: 00:28:53

Yes.

Jim Kuzak: 00:28:54

It was quite odd.

Jim Kuzak: 00:28:56

I had shortened to be going back just a little bit.

Jim Kuzak: 00:28:59

I'd only been at the city of Clareton at the time that I was shot for three weeks.

Jim Kuzak: 00:29:04

Three weeks is the only time I've been there.

Jim Kuzak: 00:29:06

I went back to that department to, I say, start my second law enforcement career.

Jim Kuzak: 00:29:10

I'd already done 18 years in other departments, and now I was going forward.

Jim Kuzak: 00:29:17

What we find out later on was, what had actually happened to the home,

Jim Kuzak: 00:29:21

On that side of the duplex lived a family, husband, wife, and two kids.

Jim Kuzak: 00:29:26

Unfortunately, the husband's career was a drug dealer and he was known that was known that that's where you could go.

Jim Kuzak: 00:29:36

He dealt out of the house.

Jim Kuzak: 00:29:38

The wife was very much aware that this is the life they lived.

Jim Kuzak: 00:29:42

And it was, excuse me, for lack of better terms, drug dealing central, excuse me.

Jim Kuzak: 00:29:49

So two thugs, as we describe them, arrived at that door at about 10 45 at night.

Jim Kuzak: 00:29:59

knocking on the back door, claiming to be the FBI and to let them in.

Jim Kuzak: 00:30:05

I don't know about you, I don't think the FBI usually comes to your door at 10 o'clock at night.

Jim Kuzak: 00:30:11

It may be.

Jim Kuzak: 00:30:12

In the mornings and stuff, but don't open your door and these idiots did and it was We'll name them now Emilio

Jim Kuzak: 00:30:21

Rivera Was the 26 year old that first went in the house I believe

Jim Kuzak: 00:30:27

and then well, I almost have to remember the name of the second one.

Jim Kuzak: 00:30:31

It'll come to me They went there saying they were the FBI and their intent was to go into that house Get

Jim Kuzak: 00:30:37

the drugs get them money and I guess get out that didn't happen They got into the house, they immediately

Jim Kuzak: 00:30:44

grabbed the husband, they get the wife, and they get the two kids, and they take them down into the basement.

Jim Kuzak: 00:30:50

And in the basement, I guess, from what I'm told, the husband gets pistol whipped, gets beat up a little bit,

Jim Kuzak: 00:30:59

and then they took one of the children, and I can't remember which, and they either placed the gun to his head or

Jim Kuzak: 00:31:06

to their mouth and said, we're gonna give us the drugs and the money, or we're just gonna kill your child.

Jim Kuzak: 00:31:13

So Emilio grabs the wife, takes her upstairs to retrieve the drugs.

Jim Kuzak: 00:31:19

So they go to the third floor of the duplex and at the third floor, he gets, I believe the cash and the drugs.

Jim Kuzak: 00:31:27

But at this point in time, he's going to, he's going to rape the wife.

Jim Kuzak: 00:31:33

He has her up against the wall, had already pulled her pants down

Jim Kuzak: 00:31:37

and was, this is her description, kissing her on the neck.

Jim Kuzak: 00:31:44

And I guess right upon that precipice to rape her.

Jim Kuzak: 00:31:50

It just timing of that is when I arrived on scene and I could see that light on and that third floor Well at that

Jim Kuzak: 00:31:58

same time he whatever caused him to look saw the police there as well so he stopped immediately takes her they run

Jim Kuzak: 00:32:07

back downstairs and Now they're caught caught meaning they only have the front door the back door They're rushing

Jim Kuzak: 00:32:18

around trying to figure out what they're gonna do And that's when one of them closed the back door when I arrived.

Jim Kuzak: 00:32:24

And we believe Amelia Rivera was the one that was at the front door talking to John.

Jim Kuzak: 00:32:30

So now they address each other and say, we're going to have to shoot our way out.

Jim Kuzak: 00:32:37

And I, this happened in the kitchen, which is where the rear door was where I was.

Jim Kuzak: 00:32:41

And we get this information from the wife as she testified in, in, uh, the preliminary hearing and

Jim Kuzak: 00:32:47

in court, but they said, yeah, we're going to shoot our way out.

Jim Kuzak: 00:32:50

And that's what they did.

Jim Kuzak: 00:32:52

Uh, waited there until I come up.

Jim Kuzak: 00:32:55

And when they saw that I was on that door, there was a window immediately to the left of the deck, but not on it.

Jim Kuzak: 00:33:01

And I guess they could either hear or see me coming up.

Jim Kuzak: 00:33:04

And that's when they decided to fire.

Jim Kuzak: 00:33:06

We found out through the trial that Amelia Rivera was the person shooting me.

Jim Kuzak: 00:33:12

Now, I was shot five times.

Jim Kuzak: 00:33:16

Could have been either a five shot revolver or a six shot revolver because we found no shell casings at the scene.

Jim Kuzak: 00:33:23

This was the Allegheny County Police.

Jim Kuzak: 00:33:25

Homicide division investigating no shell casings that would indicate that that was the case

Jim Kuzak: 00:33:31

because they didn't stay behind at least one ran after I was shot.

Jim Kuzak: 00:33:36

So, but also we never retrieved the firearms to know exactly what it was.

Jim Kuzak: 00:33:42

We know that the rounds that.

Jim Kuzak: 00:33:45

I was struck by, it was 38 caliber, uh, with the, uh, one that they retrieved from my elbow, the bullet.

Jim Kuzak: 00:33:54

And there was also, oddly enough, an almost completely intact bullet found on the deck.

Jim Kuzak: 00:34:02

In one of the, the, uh, the crevices that meet the boards.

Jim Kuzak: 00:34:05

And it was almost, they said, pristine.

Jim Kuzak: 00:34:07

So it was almost like one of the ones that crossed across the

Jim Kuzak: 00:34:09

front of my vest hit and stopped and was found there on the deck.

Jim Kuzak: 00:34:13

Uh, so yeah, that's kind of the short of what happened to them right there.

Jim Kuzak: 00:34:19

I don't know how far we want to go into the trial.

Jim Kuzak: 00:34:21

So Jimmy,

Bill Erfurth: 00:34:22

clearly a couple of career criminal scumbags.

Bill Erfurth: 00:34:25

Yes.

Bill Erfurth: 00:34:26

Unquestionably the trial itself.

Bill Erfurth: 00:34:29

There was some twists and turns.

Bill Erfurth: 00:34:31

They're convicted from my understanding.

Bill Erfurth: 00:34:34

What I recall is they get life in prison.

Bill Erfurth: 00:34:36

However, it turns into a bit of a shit show with the sentencing.

Bill Erfurth: 00:34:41

And I want you to explain, you know what I'm talking about, about your particular situation of being shot.

Jim Kuzak: 00:34:50

So we, we went through a rather long trial.

Jim Kuzak: 00:34:52

It was one of the longer ones they told me in Allegheny County's history.

Jim Kuzak: 00:34:55

It was five weeks.

Jim Kuzak: 00:34:57

You know, we know that through the investigation, you've got the two people that.

Jim Kuzak: 00:35:02

Wholeheartedly, we believe and are alleging committed these crimes.

Jim Kuzak: 00:35:06

So, Emilio Rivera is convicted.

Jim Kuzak: 00:35:09

Now, if you think back, he was convicted.

Jim Kuzak: 00:35:14

The other one, which, why I don't, can't remember his name is how far out I put it, um, he was acquitted of all charges.

Jim Kuzak: 00:35:25

And I equate that to, he had the better attorney.

Jim Kuzak: 00:35:29

Anytime that we had, uh, testimony or discussions involving his name, There was a sidebar.

Jim Kuzak: 00:35:37

His attorney brought it up and he did everything he could to keep

Jim Kuzak: 00:35:40

his testimony about his client either not ongoing or not at all.

Craig Floyd: 00:35:47

That's unbelievable to me.

Craig Floyd: 00:35:48

If I just might cut in that, uh, I thought anytime there's

Craig Floyd: 00:35:51

an accomplice, uh, to a crime, they may not have fired the gun.

Craig Floyd: 00:35:57

Um, but clearly they were part of the crime and thus they should pay the penalty.

Craig Floyd: 00:36:03

Um, how in the world, whether you have a good attorney or not.

Craig Floyd: 00:36:06

I mean, how do you get off when they're, this involves, you know, attempted rape, a home invasion, shooting a

Craig Floyd: 00:36:14

cop, nearly killing a police officer, and this guy gets off scot free.

Craig Floyd: 00:36:19

I can't understand that.

Craig Floyd: 00:36:22

I

Jim Kuzak: 00:36:22

just remembered his name, Marcus Andrake, and there's a little bit of a separation that came out in trial.

Jim Kuzak: 00:36:28

Uh, Emilio at the time was 26, and at the time, Marcus was 18.

Jim Kuzak: 00:36:34

We later find out that the reason they knew that this house was the guy that had the drug dealer was, uh, Marcus had

Jim Kuzak: 00:36:40

dated then one of the girls that was in the set, the other side of the duplex.

Jim Kuzak: 00:36:47

So he had been over there many times.

Jim Kuzak: 00:36:48

He already knew that that gentleman, not gentleman, but the guy there that lived there, he was a drug dealer.

Jim Kuzak: 00:36:54

So this is how they knew.

Jim Kuzak: 00:36:55

Because, uh, Emilio didn't live there.

Jim Kuzak: 00:36:58

Marcus didn't live there.

Jim Kuzak: 00:36:59

So that came up in trials as to why.

Jim Kuzak: 00:37:02

Uh, how he got acquitted, I have no idea.

Jim Kuzak: 00:37:06

I only look at that as when you look at a jury, sometimes they just aren't the people you would like there.

Jim Kuzak: 00:37:14

They're supposed to be your peers.

Jim Kuzak: 00:37:16

Sometimes peers aren't all that intelligent.

Jim Kuzak: 00:37:20

I equate this to, we've all seen it.

Jim Kuzak: 00:37:23

How many years has CSI been on TV?

Jim Kuzak: 00:37:26

How many things do they accomplish in an hour that.

Jim Kuzak: 00:37:30

in real life takes years.

Jim Kuzak: 00:37:33

So when you go through the trial and you see what comedy of errors occurred, you can kind of understand that, yeah,

Jim Kuzak: 00:37:41

I can see how he got acquitted because there was just too much going on.

Jim Kuzak: 00:37:45

Uh, there's, I mean, there's just so many things to enumerate

Jim Kuzak: 00:37:51

that happened in the trial that you just can't believe.

Jim Kuzak: 00:37:53

We had one of the jurors tossed because it turns out they did not admit that she was a friend of.

Jim Kuzak: 00:37:59

Uh, Emilio Rivera's sister, who was sitting behind him, she worked together with her in a nursing home.

Jim Kuzak: 00:38:06

And the reason we found that out, Cris's mother went to the

Jim Kuzak: 00:38:09

trial one day and said, Hey, I know her, sitting on the jury.

Jim Kuzak: 00:38:13

And she told Cris, how do you know her?

Jim Kuzak: 00:38:15

Cris says, what's going on?

Jim Kuzak: 00:38:17

She says, we all work together in the nursing home.

Jim Kuzak: 00:38:20

So we had to remove her from the, from the jury.

Jim Kuzak: 00:38:23

So then you put another person on one of the alternates.

Jim Kuzak: 00:38:25

And then one time when I was sitting there, this is one of the smaller courtrooms in Allegheny County.

Jim Kuzak: 00:38:30

Uh, remind you, the Allegheny County courthouse is built in, I think, late 1800s.

Jim Kuzak: 00:38:37

So it's literally this old massive building that, uh, doesn't have courtrooms you see on TV.

Jim Kuzak: 00:38:43

They're not very large.

Jim Kuzak: 00:38:45

They only have a few.

Jim Kuzak: 00:38:45

So the jurors were literally five feet away from where I was in the gallery.

Jim Kuzak: 00:38:53

There was only two rows of seats for the gallery.

Jim Kuzak: 00:38:55

So they leave the courtroom, the jurors start filing out, and the last juror, when the door opens, it

Jim Kuzak: 00:39:02

literally comes to the point where I can grab the doorknob and hold it.

Jim Kuzak: 00:39:05

So that's what I did.

Jim Kuzak: 00:39:06

I held the door.

Jim Kuzak: 00:39:08

And as the last juror, a female, walks out, she said, thank you.

Jim Kuzak: 00:39:11

And I said, you're welcome.

Jim Kuzak: 00:39:13

Come back from lunch, there's a sidebar and the judge states that the

Jim Kuzak: 00:39:18

defense attorney stated that I had contact and was speaking with the jury.

Jim Kuzak: 00:39:23

And it was over because I said, you're welcome.

Jim Kuzak: 00:39:26

So they didn't toss that juror out, but that was something that came up that another complaint from the

Jim Kuzak: 00:39:32

defense that went to the judge was we asked the, the judge stopped after lunch and stated, we'd like to

Jim Kuzak: 00:39:39

ask the Kuzak family to stop giving the defendants The death stare.

Jim Kuzak: 00:39:46

Well, my father was seated next to me and sitting there and I'm

Jim Kuzak: 00:39:48

sure looking at them intently with rage and anger in his eyes.

Jim Kuzak: 00:39:54

And they had the defense attorney brought that up to tell my father, basically, don't do that.

Jim Kuzak: 00:40:00

How do you do that?

Jim Kuzak: 00:40:01

How do you tell somebody sitting there knowing that this, these people tried to kill his son and.

Jim Kuzak: 00:40:10

And you sit there and you tell this man, no, you can't do that.

Jim Kuzak: 00:40:15

Um, and I was so concerned that I actually said to one of the deputies

Jim Kuzak: 00:40:19

in the courtroom, I said, could you please, uh, pay attention to my father?

Jim Kuzak: 00:40:23

Cause I just don't know what's going to cause him to crack.

Jim Kuzak: 00:40:26

I don't know if he's going to, um, you know, reach out, try and grab

Jim Kuzak: 00:40:31

one of these guys, because that's the close quarters we were in.

Jim Kuzak: 00:40:35

And, um, I was concerned for him.

Jim Kuzak: 00:40:40

Uh, we had another incident when they had a confidential informant on the stand asking him about, uh,

Jim Kuzak: 00:40:47

Amelia Rivera, admitting to him on tape that he should have gone back and finished me off and killed me,

Jim Kuzak: 00:40:55

the judge, uh, the defense attorneys were dealing with him.

Jim Kuzak: 00:40:57

And as the prosecutor said to him, he says, well, did you ever.

Jim Kuzak: 00:41:02

Anybody ever know that you were the person telling the police what was going on?

Jim Kuzak: 00:41:06

And he says, I don't think so.

Jim Kuzak: 00:41:07

But one time I was out in the parking lot and these two guys,

Jim Kuzak: 00:41:10

another guy approached me and said, yeah, we know what you were doing.

Jim Kuzak: 00:41:13

And they basically were saying, you know, you're the snitch.

Jim Kuzak: 00:41:16

The prosecutor says, well, have you ever seen these people again?

Jim Kuzak: 00:41:21

He's like, yeah, there they are.

Jim Kuzak: 00:41:23

So we know where they are.

Jim Kuzak: 00:41:24

In the back of the gallery, there were two black males that weren't dressed appropriately for court.

Jim Kuzak: 00:41:29

I would say more in gang colors.

Jim Kuzak: 00:41:30

And he said, those two, they threatened me.

Jim Kuzak: 00:41:34

So immediately the deputies have to turn away, go to the back, and place these two under arrest for jury tampering.

Jim Kuzak: 00:41:42

And not jury tampering, um, can't find the words right now.

Jim Kuzak: 00:41:45

Intimidation.

Jim Kuzak: 00:41:46

Intimidation.

Jim Kuzak: 00:41:47

Yeah.

Jim Kuzak: 00:41:48

That's it.

Jim Kuzak: 00:41:49

So now you have that happening in the middle of the trial.

Jim Kuzak: 00:41:51

Everybody's having to get up and get back and all the deputies come running in and they take them out.

Craig Floyd: 00:41:55

Bill, I know you, um, have some interesting footage that you wanted to show.

Craig Floyd: 00:42:01

Jimmy, when we were together at the officer of the month luncheon, You

Craig Floyd: 00:42:05

had said you were optimistic that someday you would be walking again.

Craig Floyd: 00:42:09

And I know it's been a long haul for you, but I know you have made some progress.

Craig Floyd: 00:42:14

And, uh, Bill, you have some amazing footage of Jimmy actually,

Craig Floyd: 00:42:18

uh, going through his rehab and getting close to walking himself.

Bill Erfurth: 00:42:23

Yeah.

Bill Erfurth: 00:42:23

So I do want to revisit that with you, Jimmy, and you and I had the opportunity to do this.

Bill Erfurth: 00:42:29

To do this film together, this documentary is called, uh, heroes Behind The Badge, sacrifice and survival

Bill Erfurth: 00:42:35

in the documentary, you and I, uh, go back to the scene of the crime,

Bill Erfurth: 00:42:41

back to those steps of the back of the house where you were first shot.

Bill Erfurth: 00:42:45

And, uh, we're going to show that clip.

Bill Erfurth: 00:42:47

And then I want to talk about that just a little bit.

Jim Kuzak: 00:42:50

Okay.

Jim Kuzak: 00:42:51

And all I saw was, was the muzzle flash.

Jim Kuzak: 00:42:56

When I went down, I knew I was paralyzed.

Jim Kuzak: 00:42:58

I didn't know the last time I walked up those four steps was the last time I was going to ever walk.

Bill Erfurth: 00:43:05

That I recall being very emotional.

Bill Erfurth: 00:43:08

Not only for you, because of course, that's the first time you've been back there.

Bill Erfurth: 00:43:12

So it just brings back all of those feelings and, and emotions at that time.

Bill Erfurth: 00:43:19

But it was, it was emotional for me.

Bill Erfurth: 00:43:21

Talk about that.

Jim Kuzak: 00:43:23

It's odd, Bill.

Jim Kuzak: 00:43:24

I, uh, I hadn't seen that part of that video for some time.

Jim Kuzak: 00:43:29

Um, so looking back at the back of that house, it's bringing it back.

Jim Kuzak: 00:43:36

It was very surreal because, you know, when I took Cris, Cris was driving us that time, and you guys were following.

Jim Kuzak: 00:43:46

We pull up outside the front of the house in the daylight,

Jim Kuzak: 00:43:49

and it's literally about the same place I pulled up to.

Jim Kuzak: 00:43:54

Uh, then we drove around to the back through the alley, and then that's where we got out.

Jim Kuzak: 00:44:00

And it's, it's just like, wow, this is right where this happened.

Jim Kuzak: 00:44:05

You know, I don't know, I mean, I, I've not had many life changing events.

Jim Kuzak: 00:44:09

to this decree.

Jim Kuzak: 00:44:11

So to be there was, um, I don't know if it was painful more than it

Jim Kuzak: 00:44:16

was wow, just being at this point in my life that night changed it.

Jim Kuzak: 00:44:25

And it wasn't my doing, it was somebody else's doing that literally

Jim Kuzak: 00:44:31

caused my life to go in the direction that I would have never expected.

Jim Kuzak: 00:44:37

Um, And then having you guys there, um, it's not like you were pushing me there.

Jim Kuzak: 00:44:45

This wasn't scripted.

Jim Kuzak: 00:44:46

This was, this was just like, yeah, you guys went back there with me the first time.

Jim Kuzak: 00:44:52

I literally hadn't been on that street.

Jim Kuzak: 00:44:54

I hadn't even thought about that house.

Jim Kuzak: 00:44:58

So just to be there was, uh, it took me right back, but you just look for simple steps that you take every day

Jim Kuzak: 00:45:08

that you walk every day that you, you don't even process in your mind that you're walking your body just does it.

Jim Kuzak: 00:45:15

And I looked at that and I had no way to get up four steps and I'm still to that point to this day.

Bill Erfurth: 00:45:22

Yeah, it was, uh, it was definitely an emotional experience that we shared there.

Bill Erfurth: 00:45:26

Now, we, uh, we also went with you to rehab and you had done some water rehab.

Bill Erfurth: 00:45:33

Uh, you went to a specific facility where they.

Bill Erfurth: 00:45:36

Put you on a treadmill, they buckled you in, uh, we're going to share that video and talk about that as well.

Jim Kuzak: 00:45:44

In

Jim Kuzak: 00:45:47

my mind, I'm going to be walking again.

Jim Kuzak: 00:45:50

I don't want to say I'm ever going to get there, but in my mind I'm getting there.

Bill Erfurth: 00:45:56

So are you still doing the rehab, I guess, and do you still have that same mindset?

Jim Kuzak: 00:46:03

Oh, the mindset's there.

Jim Kuzak: 00:46:05

I pretty much look at my every day as there's so many things against me, but none of them are going to stop me.

Jim Kuzak: 00:46:12

It's just the way it is.

Jim Kuzak: 00:46:13

And I don't want to ever think about it any other way.

Jim Kuzak: 00:46:16

I don't do the rehab per se that, you know, I go to a place

Jim Kuzak: 00:46:20

and I do these things and I don't get to go on that machine.

Jim Kuzak: 00:46:23

Um, most of my stuff now is just basically kind of related to my activities.

Jim Kuzak: 00:46:27

You know, I work out.

Jim Kuzak: 00:46:28

Uh, I get to do that at home, gym, sometimes.

Jim Kuzak: 00:46:32

Uh, I have an attachment now that's basically half a bicycle.

Jim Kuzak: 00:46:36

It attaches to the front of my wheelchair and I get to hand bike.

Jim Kuzak: 00:46:39

So instead of pedaling with my feet, I pedal with my hands.

Jim Kuzak: 00:46:42

And I go out to that and I'm Usually up around now, I, with time, I've done, you know, up to 18 to 23 miles at a time.

Jim Kuzak: 00:46:50

And that gives me a lot of good workout.

Jim Kuzak: 00:46:52

Uh, my shooting now, my shooting career is taking me everywhere.

Jim Kuzak: 00:46:58

You know, I get to go to all these different places in different ranges

Jim Kuzak: 00:47:01

and that's, you know, the movements and everything I used to do.

Jim Kuzak: 00:47:04

I, I used to do it in a manual chair, which was kind of slow.

Jim Kuzak: 00:47:08

But now I'm in a, a power chair that I, I have that, uh, I get to go a

Jim Kuzak: 00:47:12

lot faster and shoot differently and, and be a little more competitive.

Jim Kuzak: 00:47:16

So I get to do a lot of that.

Jim Kuzak: 00:47:17

Will I walk in?

Bill Erfurth: 00:47:19

And that's a perfect segue because that was, uh, we wanted to kind of move this forward a bit in

Bill Erfurth: 00:47:25

the interest of time, but also let's move forward to what you're doing today.

Bill Erfurth: 00:47:29

And that is a big part of what you're doing today.

Bill Erfurth: 00:47:31

And you, and you competitively shoot and are sponsored by the Glock shooting team.

Bill Erfurth: 00:47:36

And we've got a video of you, a competitive video that you forwarded to us.

Bill Erfurth: 00:47:42

And we're going to share that right now.

Bill Erfurth: 00:48:10

So Jimmy, you're probably.

Bill Erfurth: 00:48:11

You're probably a better shot than most cops right now, I would say.

Bill Erfurth: 00:48:15

How is that?

Jim Kuzak: 00:48:16

Talk about it.

Jim Kuzak: 00:48:17

A lot of friends that I shoot with now would say that to like, you know,

Jim Kuzak: 00:48:20

in fact, a couple of the cops I know down here shoot with me as well.

Jim Kuzak: 00:48:23

And they're like, you know what?

Jim Kuzak: 00:48:24

You're, you're shooting a lot more when you get to shoot as much as I have now.

Jim Kuzak: 00:48:29

And guys that are on the competitive circuit, you're, you're firing.

Jim Kuzak: 00:48:33

I think last year I fired over 15, 000 rounds and I'm on the lower end.

Jim Kuzak: 00:48:38

So yeah, I, I I've gotten much better.

Jim Kuzak: 00:48:40

Let's just say that.

Jim Kuzak: 00:48:42

Uh, but yeah, I was afforded the opportunity to be that brand

Jim Kuzak: 00:48:47

ambassador and be a competitive shooter by the Glock brand.

Jim Kuzak: 00:48:50

And I want to say it started with what you guys got me into Craig bill.

Jim Kuzak: 00:48:54

When we were down, uh, that year for, uh, police week in 2013 and.

Jim Kuzak: 00:49:01

One of the pictures I sent to you, Bill, was you, me, and two of the English bobbies were there, and we

Jim Kuzak: 00:49:06

took a picture, and we were at that, I believe it was the National Museum, uh, building behind the memorial.

Jim Kuzak: 00:49:13

Right.

Jim Kuzak: 00:49:13

And that's the day that it's, I think it's Jack Dorsey from Glock gave the check.

Jim Kuzak: 00:49:20

Yeah.

Jim Kuzak: 00:49:21

Gave the check to the Unity Tour, or to you, Craig, for over two million dollars.

Jim Kuzak: 00:49:27

Right.

Jim Kuzak: 00:49:27

And I met, I met him that day, and I said to him, I said, What's it going

Jim Kuzak: 00:49:32

to take for me to be a competitive shooter or a shooter for Glock?

Jim Kuzak: 00:49:36

And he just kind of chuckled and laughed.

Jim Kuzak: 00:49:38

And that was only back in 2013.

Jim Kuzak: 00:49:40

So then, um, when I was contacted by Glock in late 2015, a lot of the work paid off.

Jim Kuzak: 00:49:51

I guess meeting people and talking to people paid off and I was afforded this opportunity that I have been

Jim Kuzak: 00:49:56

graciously and filled full of gratitude to accept and get myself out there and not only shoot for me, but to

Jim Kuzak: 00:50:05

show other people in wheelchairs or other people with various disabilities that don't let anything stop you.

Jim Kuzak: 00:50:14

You can do it again, or you can do something new that you wanted to do,

Jim Kuzak: 00:50:18

and Glock Affording Me This Opportunity has done that for me and many others.

Bill Erfurth: 00:50:22

What I do want to ask you about, though, Jimmy,

Bill Erfurth: 00:50:25

because we see it in the video, then you sent a still picture.

Bill Erfurth: 00:50:29

You got these ruby red sneakers on, like from The Wizard of Oz or something.

Bill Erfurth: 00:50:34

What the hell is that that you're wearing there?

Bill Erfurth: 00:50:36

Where did those come from?

Bill Erfurth: 00:50:37

Did you get sponsored

Jim Kuzak: 00:50:38

for those too?

Jim Kuzak: 00:50:40

No.

Jim Kuzak: 00:50:40

What that comes down to is friendship.

Jim Kuzak: 00:50:44

And what I mean by friendship is you meet so many people when you're in any type of sports or activities like that.

Jim Kuzak: 00:50:52

Well, the guys that I repetitively, and women I repetitively shoot with at my

Jim Kuzak: 00:50:57

local range, the Hanson range, uh, they are the ones that brought me along.

Jim Kuzak: 00:51:03

Yeah, I've shot since I was eight years old, but when you get

Jim Kuzak: 00:51:07

into the competitive realm, you, you need to learn a lot more.

Jim Kuzak: 00:51:11

And all these people, excuse me, helped me with that.

Jim Kuzak: 00:51:15

And then I always joke to them, because in these sports, you have what they call fault lines on the ground.

Jim Kuzak: 00:51:21

You can't step outside of them and shoot.

Jim Kuzak: 00:51:23

If you do, it's a foot fault.

Jim Kuzak: 00:51:26

So I always joke where my foot would be placed.

Jim Kuzak: 00:51:29

In reference to my wheelchair and I said, well, you guys, you can't even give me a foot fault

Jim Kuzak: 00:51:34

because you guys are wearing these Solomon shoes and you can see them.

Jim Kuzak: 00:51:38

So I didn't know this.

Jim Kuzak: 00:51:40

They heard that when I said it and they went out and bought me these red shoes, the brightest color you can imagine.

Jim Kuzak: 00:51:51

And we were at a match at our range and they, I mean, we had a ton of people there.

Jim Kuzak: 00:51:55

And I remember Sean, she comes over to me and hands me this bag and I'm like, what is this?

Jim Kuzak: 00:52:00

And then all of a sudden I see everybody looking at me, I'm like, this isn't going to end well.

Jim Kuzak: 00:52:04

And I pulled out the shoe box and I opened up and there they are, these bright red Solomon shoes.

Jim Kuzak: 00:52:09

I said, well, now they're definitely going to try and give me foot fault because you can see my feet.

Jim Kuzak: 00:52:14

So anytime I go and compete, I always wear those shoes.

Jim Kuzak: 00:52:18

There you

Bill Erfurth: 00:52:18

go.

Bill Erfurth: 00:52:19

Well, I knew there had to be a story to that.

Bill Erfurth: 00:52:20

Yep.

Bill Erfurth: 00:52:21

How about Craig, we wrap this up with the last question from you and let's talk about Jimmy's dogs.

Dennis Collins: 00:52:27

Yes.

Craig Floyd: 00:52:27

Very good.

Craig Floyd: 00:52:28

I will ask this because we've alluded to her, at least I have before.

Craig Floyd: 00:52:33

Um, this amazing, beautiful woman that's been by your side throughout this ordeal.

Craig Floyd: 00:52:39

Uh, Cris, your wife, um, tell me about Cris and, and how important

Craig Floyd: 00:52:45

has she been in terms of your recovery and in terms of your life?

Craig Floyd: 00:52:51

Wow, you guys really, um,

Jim Kuzak: 00:52:53

if you want me to get emotional, this is it.

Jim Kuzak: 00:52:55

Um,

Jim Kuzak: 00:52:58

it's been 15 years we've been together.

Jim Kuzak: 00:53:01

The first year that we were together, I obviously wasn't in a wheelchair.

Jim Kuzak: 00:53:06

We had been together one year when this happened.

Jim Kuzak: 00:53:09

And when you're in the hospital, you know, I'm getting one thing from the medical professionals and Cris is

Jim Kuzak: 00:53:15

getting another from the people trying to make you understand what's going on.

Jim Kuzak: 00:53:19

And they told her, look, um,

Jim Kuzak: 00:53:24

boyfriends and girlfriends don't usually stay.

Jim Kuzak: 00:53:27

Fiances, at the time, she was just my girlfriend.

Jim Kuzak: 00:53:30

Fiances, maybe 50 percent of the time, you'd be lucky if they stay.

Jim Kuzak: 00:53:34

And marriages die because of this a lot of the times.

Jim Kuzak: 00:53:39

So she's not giving good odds.

Jim Kuzak: 00:53:41

And I remember one day when it was just us in the room, and I told her, I said, Look, you didn't sign up for this.

Jim Kuzak: 00:53:48

I understand if you need to go.

Jim Kuzak: 00:53:52

And I said, I don't feel bad.

Jim Kuzak: 00:53:55

My family won't feel bad.

Jim Kuzak: 00:53:57

She never left.

Jim Kuzak: 00:53:59

She never alluded to leaving.

Jim Kuzak: 00:54:01

She never showed me any reason and she never did.

Jim Kuzak: 00:54:07

Um, that's something that I'll never let go of.

Jim Kuzak: 00:54:12

So Cris is on the good side of this.

Jim Kuzak: 00:54:14

She is amazing.

Jim Kuzak: 00:54:16

She has dealt with everything that comes along with now being the partner of a paraplegic man.

Jim Kuzak: 00:54:22

Um, your legs don't work, your, Bowel and bladder program is

Jim Kuzak: 00:54:28

something you have to monitor and do yourself repetitively every day.

Jim Kuzak: 00:54:32

You don't do it like you used to.

Jim Kuzak: 00:54:35

All the medical stuff that comes along with that, all the doctor's appointments that she's had me go to and go with me.

Jim Kuzak: 00:54:41

She knows more about me and my body and what I have to do and take than I do.

Jim Kuzak: 00:54:46

So that's just that part of us being in a relationship.

Jim Kuzak: 00:54:49

Now, the fun that she brings to everything is, is that we interact

Jim Kuzak: 00:54:54

greatly as we find something humorous in everything we do.

Jim Kuzak: 00:54:58

And now, at this point in life, we have four dogs.

Jim Kuzak: 00:55:01

Not four small dogs, four large dogs.

Jim Kuzak: 00:55:03

We have three German Shepherds and a Doberman.

Jim Kuzak: 00:55:06

Uh, and they have been so much fun.

Jim Kuzak: 00:55:10

Not always fun on the good aspect, because they're dogs and you have to train them, but we've had some

Jim Kuzak: 00:55:15

medical issues with them too, and when they're Basically your children, you, uh, you, you treat them as such.

Jim Kuzak: 00:55:22

Cris has been on multiple occasions with different dogs.

Jim Kuzak: 00:55:26

She's been part of multiple search and rescue teams where she has had, uh, our

Jim Kuzak: 00:55:32

dog is trained in HRD, which is human remains detection or a cadaver dog.

Jim Kuzak: 00:55:37

And she's been on many searches where they've been, uh, missing persons.

Jim Kuzak: 00:55:41

They've been, uh, homicide cases with two of our dogs.

Jim Kuzak: 00:55:45

We still have one.

Jim Kuzak: 00:55:46

She's in her later stages of life.

Jim Kuzak: 00:55:47

She's 11.

Jim Kuzak: 00:55:48

She's retired.

Jim Kuzak: 00:55:49

She, unfortunately right now is also paralyzed like me.

Jim Kuzak: 00:55:52

She can't use her rear legs.

Jim Kuzak: 00:55:54

So Cris every day lifts her up.

Jim Kuzak: 00:56:00

Lifts her up every day like she helped me and keeps this dog

Jim Kuzak: 00:56:03

in a happy life by taking her outside multiple times to go pee.

Jim Kuzak: 00:56:08

Um, we get her in the pool.

Jim Kuzak: 00:56:10

We have a pool that the dogs use more than us.

Jim Kuzak: 00:56:13

So we're out there usually every good day letting them swim, jump in and out.

Jim Kuzak: 00:56:17

And, uh, that's what we do.

Jim Kuzak: 00:56:19

And that's mostly the other part of our life.

Jim Kuzak: 00:56:22

Cris gets to let me, she lets me enjoy.

Jim Kuzak: 00:56:25

What I say is, she just knows what I enjoy, and she's like, go do it.

Jim Kuzak: 00:56:29

So that's the shooting part of it.

Jim Kuzak: 00:56:31

And then with her and the dogs, man, she handles all of it.

Jim Kuzak: 00:56:35

And she is, uh, she is who is supposed to be in my life.

Jim Kuzak: 00:56:40

And, uh, she is.

Craig Floyd: 00:56:41

A great love story.

Craig Floyd: 00:56:43

Both you and Cris, especially you and Cris, but also Yes.

Craig Floyd: 00:56:47

You and Cris, and the dogs.

Craig Floyd: 00:56:48

And the dogs, yeah.

Craig Floyd: 00:56:49

And I've loved every minute of it.

Craig Floyd: 00:56:51

La last question I have, I, I, I sure I need to hear the answer.

Craig Floyd: 00:56:55

You, um, have been paralyzed, uh, through a shooting incident because

Craig Floyd: 00:57:00

you were a police officer putting your life on the line every day.

Craig Floyd: 00:57:04

Uh, for the safety and welfare of your community, um, and it's cost you a lot.

Craig Floyd: 00:57:09

Uh, do you have any regrets, uh, that you became a police officer, uh, and served for 18 years?

Craig Floyd: 00:57:16

No.

Craig Floyd: 00:57:17

Never once.

Jim Kuzak: 00:57:18

Never once.

Jim Kuzak: 00:57:19

Uh, I, I talk to police officers now a lot, uh, I've gotten some friends still in law enforcement

Jim Kuzak: 00:57:25

and I tell them, I don't know that I could be involved in it today.

Jim Kuzak: 00:57:29

I guess I'm just already that far removed.

Jim Kuzak: 00:57:32

You know, I was, my generation, I'd already had, when I was medically retired, I had 20 years on the job.

Jim Kuzak: 00:57:37

So, uh, even the guys that trained me, we're all retired.

Jim Kuzak: 00:57:41

Uh, so then now I become the person who's training other officers.

Jim Kuzak: 00:57:46

Uh, and now I see today what's going on with.

Jim Kuzak: 00:57:49

Like why you created Citizens Behind The Badge, this defund, this, the police officers are no good.

Jim Kuzak: 00:57:56

And I just, no, I can't stand for that.

Jim Kuzak: 00:57:59

You know, if it wasn't for the police officers, who would you call?

Jim Kuzak: 00:58:03

Where would you be?

Jim Kuzak: 00:58:04

Um, how would your family survive?

Jim Kuzak: 00:58:07

I think a lot of people forget that we are the last.

Jim Kuzak: 00:58:12

standing line between you and crime and you and um, injury to your family.

Jim Kuzak: 00:58:18

How many police officers do we see now that are involved in shootings daily?

Jim Kuzak: 00:58:23

Daily they're involved in shootings.

Jim Kuzak: 00:58:25

Uh, I remember it was hard to understand that when I was a police officer that we had this many shootings.

Jim Kuzak: 00:58:32

I know that I've attended too many police funerals.

Jim Kuzak: 00:58:35

Uh, I don't want to go to any more, but unfortunately that's the error of what it is that we're getting it back.

Jim Kuzak: 00:58:44

I know with efforts that you've done and Bill and everybody on this board, uh, have created.

Jim Kuzak: 00:58:50

And I see a lot of what people are finally fed up.

Jim Kuzak: 00:58:55

And you can see that by where our political realm has gone.

Jim Kuzak: 00:58:58

They're fed up and police officers are getting back to doing the job

Jim Kuzak: 00:59:02

that they're required to do, and now they're being let alone to do it again.

Bill Erfurth: 00:59:08

So, Jimmy, Jimmy, you da man, baby, you da man, I'll tell you what, you are, and this is what

Bill Erfurth: 00:59:15

I'm gonna leave this with, people need to know, you are a, you're an incredible fucking guy, incredible in

Bill Erfurth: 00:59:22

so many ways, I mean, the strife and everything that you've gone through, people need to know, you are, and

Bill Erfurth: 00:59:27

I've said this to so many people, it is astonishing, the Absolute positive attitude that you always have.

Bill Erfurth: 00:59:36

You're always upbeat.

Bill Erfurth: 00:59:37

You're always happy.

Bill Erfurth: 00:59:39

And you're an incredible fucking guy.

Jim Kuzak: 00:59:42

Well, I appreciate that, Bill.

Jim Kuzak: 00:59:43

I appreciate that coming from you.

Jim Kuzak: 00:59:45

I have valued our friendship over the years.

Jim Kuzak: 00:59:48

Uh, usually when you and I talk, it's never serious.

Jim Kuzak: 00:59:51

It's usually comedic in nature, and that's what I enjoy.

Jim Kuzak: 00:59:55

He

Dennis Collins: 00:59:55

brings that, he brings that out.

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He brings out that comedic, uh, but he was a pretty good boy today.

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He, okay, he watched himself.

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So I didn't have to, I didn't have to step in with my Buzzer.

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So I can't tell you how much we appreciate your courage to tell your story.

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I know that has to be brings back some not so good memories.

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But you know what?

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Your story is an inspiration to every one of us because you are the embodiment.

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It's not what happens to you in life.

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It's how you respond to it, how you respond to it.

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You are the image Um, a perfect response and I know it's not perfect for you every day.

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It's perfect in that you don't give up.

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I like something you said during this interview.

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So many things against me, but nothing is going to stop me.

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Don't let anything stop you.

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That's the message that Kuzak, a true hero Behind The Badge.

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I appreciate the kind words.

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Thank you.

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Well, we appreciate you and thank you for telling the story.

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That is, that is this edition of heroes Behind The Badge, real

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stories, real cops, and the real truth, and you got the real truth.

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From Jimmy Kuzak today.

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If you'd like to know more about Citizens Behind The Badge,

Dennis Collins: 01:01:28

CitizensBehindTheBadge.org, CitizensBehindTheBadge.org.

Dennis Collins: 01:01:33

Join the hundreds of thousands of people who are already lending their support to the men and women of law enforcement.

Dennis Collins: 01:01:41

We'll be back soon with another edition of Heroes Behind The Badge.